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  <title>Welcome to the The Anglo-Saxon Penitentials: A cultural database</title>
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     <div id="header"><h2 style="margin-right: 1.5em;">Description of the <span
style="font-style: italic;">OE Penitential</span> & indices</h2></div>
     <div id="text">
      <P>
      <TABLE border="1"><tr><td><font face="arial" size="+1">       
      
        <a href="char4oep.html">Table 1</a> shows organization of the text in each manuscript.<br/> 
        <a href="char5oep.html">Table 2</a>: canon finder: links each canon reference to the manuscript.<br/> 
        <a href="char3oep.html">Table 3</a>: lists sources and shows the relation of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> to the <span
style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>. </td></tr></TABLE>
</p>  <p>
       
       Following a guide to the text's <a href="txhdoep.html#form">form and content</a>, you will find a list of <a href="txhdoep.html#manuscripts">manuscripts</a>, a discussion of <a href="
       txhdoep.html#date">date and sources</a>, and a <a href="txhdoep.html#bib">bibliography</a>.Three indices are included in the form of table.
      </p> 
           
       
       <br/>
       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="form">Form and Content</a></h3>

        <P> The 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Old English Penitential</span>
         is a four-part handbook of penance. The first three books books translate the third, fourth,
and fifth books, respectively, a six-book Latin texts known as the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Penitential</span> of Halitgar, bishop of Cambrai (d. 829; 
ed. Schmitz, 1898, 275-300). Book 4 is composed of canons derived 
         in part from the penitential known as the
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>.
       </p>
       <p>Reflecting its close relationship to its Latin source, each book of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> is marked with a simple <span
class="lang_latin">incipit</span> and <span class="lang_latin">explicit</span> 
         (e.g., "<span class="lang_latin">Explicit Liber primus</span>;<span
class="lang_latin">Incipit Liber secundus</span>"). The exception is book 4, which in all the
         MSS carries an <span class="lang_latin">incipit</span> that describes the fourth book as a
supplement to books 1-3, as in this quotation from MS X, f. 7a-7b: 
         <dir style="margin-right: 4em;">Her ongin&eth; seo feor&eth;e boc seo is genumen of
&eth;am &thorn;rym bocum and &thorn;&aelig;t man on &thorn;am &thorn;rym bocum
hra&eth;e findan ne m&aelig;g hit man
           fint on &thorn;issere foer&eth;an &aelig;g &thorn;er ge be maran &thorn;ingum ge be
l&aelig;ssan openlicor and hradlicor.<br/>
           Here begins the fourth book that is adapted from the three books; what one cannot readily
find in those three books one may 
           find in this fourth book, concerning both greater things and lessor, more plainly and more
conveniently.
         </dir> 
         
This <span class="lang_latin">incipit</span> reappears in revised in MS X (f. 84b) at the
beginning
         of book 4 and also is found at that location in MSS SY, where it is used to explain why the
fourth
         book is not divided into chapters as the other three are:<br/>
         <dir style="margin-right: 4em;">Hit is &eth;eah to witanne. hwi &eth;eos feor&eth;e boc
s&yacute; uncapitulod nu &eth;a
            &aelig;rran bec s&yacute;nd gecapitulode. &thorn;
            &aelig;t is for&eth;on
            &thorn;e &thorn;eos feor&eth;e boc is genumen of &eth;am &thorn;r&yacute;m bocum.
&amp;
            &thorn;&aelig;t man on &eth;am
&thorn;r&yacute;m bocum hra&eth;e findan ne
            m&aelig;g. hit man fint on &eth;issere feor&eth;an &aelig;g&eth;er ge be maran
&eth;ingum
            ge be l&aelig;ssan openlicor
<br/>

Here it is nevertheless to be known why this fourth book is without chapter headings whereas the other chapters have them. That is because the fourth book is is adapted from the three books; what one cannot readily find in those three books one may find in this fourth book, concerning both greater things and lessor, more plainly and more
conveniently.
         </dir>
This explanation is, obviously, illogical: it is easier to find content with chapter headings, not without them. These two introductory comments offer some clues about the place of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE
Penitential</span> text in the history of Anglo-Saxon penitentials.     
</p>
       <p>
         The claim that the fourth book is an adaptation of the first three is, however, false (see
Raith,
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Die altenglische Version</span>, xxvi and 47n); the
material in the fourth book is not found in the earlier books. 
         To complicate matters, you will see that the version of Book 4 in MS X is anomalous. The
first ten canons (44.01.01-44.10.01) are found in MS X 
         exactly as they are found in MSS SY. But then after this point MS X adds 1) six canons
which Raith calls the  "Additamenta" (fol. 86b), 2) part of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Introduction</span>, and 3) the entire text of the
<span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>. The "additamenta" 
         comprise six canons of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Old English
Handbook</span>, four of them in approximate numerical order (see <a
href="char5oep.html">Table 2</a> for the sequence of canons). The rubricator of the
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">capitula</span> in MS X was aware of the distinctive nature of this collection. Roman numeral I 
encompasses the first ten canons of book 4 (44.01.01-44.10.01) and the "Additamenta" (fol.
86b-87a). 
         Roman numeral II begins the excerpt from the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Introduction</span>; roman numeral III begins the
first canon of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>(01.01.01).
       </p>

       <p>
         There are other distinctive features of the manuscript tradition of Book 4. Two canons on
the
         commutations (shortening) of penances are missing from the end of the text in MS BY (Bx
8558
         and Laud 482). Ker says that this gap is due to a textual lacuna, not to a missing leaf or
leaves.
         (See the description of MS B [Brussels 8558-63] for details.) <span style="font-weight:
bold;">OE Penitential</span>
         44.57.01-44.59.01 are found only in MS O (Corpus 190); MS X (Junius 121) contains a
         completely different version of the entire fourth book and is also missing these two canons.
It is
         not likely that there is a "textual lacuna" in MS YB; these manuscripts represent a different
         version of the end of the fourth book, not an incomplete one. The material details with
         commutations for penance, so it is worth asking why one version of Book 4 (represented by
MSS
         BY) omits two of the three provisions concerning them (44.59.01, included in BY as well as
S, also concerns commutations). 
       </p>

       <p> 
         The organization of the text in MS X would seem to suggest that the
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> was a supplement to the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> rather than an independent
handbook for the priest. On the evidence of MS X, Spindler argued that the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> was once part of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>. 
However, the fourth book of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> in MS X is a unique compilation
that, it can be argued, represents an attempt to combine the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> with the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>. It is important that MSS BSY all
present book 4 in the same way (with canons numbered 44.11.01-44.50.01). 
         However, the pattern of the text in MS X is obviously based on an exemplar (as the <span
style="font-weight: bold;">capitula</span> indicate); unlike MSS SY, MS X
employs Latin 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">capitula</span> (fol. 7b-8a) and later, in the body of the
text, precedes each chapter of the text with such a heading. Readers persuaded by Spindler's arguments can assume that the original version of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> contained the fourth book as it
appears in MS X; others might want to assume that this 
         version is an anomoly and that book 4 of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> is better represented by MSS
BSY. 
       </p>
       <br/>
       
       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="manuscripts">Manuscripts</a></h3>
       <p>
         There are four manuscripts of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Penitential</span> 
         (MS B contains Book 4 only):
         <ul style="list-style-type: none;">
           <li>
             <span style="color: red;">
               B&nbsp;&nbsp; Brussels, Biblioth&egrave;que royale, 8558-63, s.
               xi&sup1;, southeastern (Ker 10; Gneuss 808);
             </span>
           </li>
           <li>
             <span style="color: red;">
               S&nbsp;&nbsp; Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 190, Part B, pp.
               368-71; s. xi<sup>med</sup>, xi&sup2;, Exeter (Ker 45B, Gneuss 59); pp. 387-413
             </span>
           </li>
           <li>
            <span style="color: red;">
              X&nbsp;&nbsp; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Junius 121, s. xi&frac34;, 
              Worcester (Ker 338; Gneuss 644);
            </span>
            </li>
            <li>
              <span style="color: red;">
                Y&nbsp;&nbsp; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 482, s.
                xi<sup>med</sup>, Worcester (Ker 343; Gneuss 656).
              </span>
            </li>
         </ul>
       </p>
       <br/>
       
       
       <h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; "><a name="date">Date and Sources</a></h3>
       <p>
         The 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> 
         can at present only be dated on the basis of its source relationships to the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> 
         and the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span>. 
         The fourth book of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> draws some of its content from the
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span>; in turn, the fourth book of the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Handbook</span> 
         is drawn from the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>. 
         It seems reasonable to conclude that although the
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span>
         and the 
         <span style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> 
         are found in the same manuscripts,
         the latter is the older text.      </p>

<p><a href="char3oep.html">Table 3</a> elaborates on the sources of
Book 4 of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> to the <span
style="font-weight: bold;">Scriftboc</span> and that also contains the text of the probable Latin
sources of that texts. Books 1, 2, and 3 of the <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE
Penitential</span> are close to Halitgar's penitential; Raith prints the sources in his notes.
       </p> 
<br/>
<h3 style="font-size: 20pt; color: #626C9B; font-weight: bold; position: relative; top: -1em; letter-spacing: .10em; width: 100%; border-bottom: double 3px #626C9B; ">Manuscript tables</h3>
       <p>
         Two tables are available to give you an overview of how the 
      <span style="font-weight: bold;">OE Penitential</span> is arranged in each manuscript.
       </p><a href="char4oep.html">Table 1</a> is an index of chapters. <a
href="char5oep.html">Table 2</a>, more detailed, is an index of chapters by manuscript. Note
that MS B (Brussels 8558-63) contains only Book 4 and that the version of Book 4 in MS X
(Junius 121) is, as is explained above, unique.</p>
     </div>
     <div id="header" style="border-top: double 3px lightyellow;"><h2 style="margin-right:
1.5em;"><a name="bib">Bibliography</a></h2></div>
     <div id="text">
       <p>
         <dir>
           Mone, F. J. ed. 
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte der teutschen
Literatur und Sprache</span>.
           1830. Pp. 529-47.
         </dir>

         <dir>
           Thorpe, Benjamin. ed., 
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Ancient Laws and Institutes of England </span>.
           2 vols. London, 1840, 2:170-239. Prints a Latin translation of the text, based on MS S, as
"Poenitentiale Ecgberti" and including the supplement to the Canons of Theodore (CTHS), pp.
416-18 of MS S (2:232-39). However, the Latin is not found in Corpus 190; there is no medieval
Latin translation of this work.
         </dir>

         <dir>
           Jost, Karl. 
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Die "Institutes of Polity, Civil and Ecclesiastical," ein
Werk Erzbischof Wulfstans von York</span>.
             Schweizer anglistische Arbeiten, XLVII. Berne, 1959. Pp. 170-72.
         </dir>

         <dir>
           Raith, J., ed. 
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Die altenglische Version des Halitgar'schen Bussbuches
(sog. Poenitentiale Pseudo-Ecgberti)</span>.
             Bibliothek der Angels&auml;chsischen Prosa
             13. Hamburg, 1933. Repr. with new introduction, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
             Buchgesselschaft, 1964. Pp. 76-80.
         </dir>

         <dir>
           Schmitz, H. J. 
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Die Bussb&uuml;cher und das kanonische
Bussverfahren</span>.
             D&uuml;sseldorf, 1898; repr. Graz:  Akademische Druck- U.
             Verlaganstalt, 1958.
         </dir>

         <dir>
           Fowler, R. ed. "A Late OE Handbook for the Use of a Confessor,"
           <span style="font-style: italic;">Anglia</span>
           83 (1965):1-34.
         </dir>
       </p>
     </div>     
   </div>
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